Sick Day
by abetternameneeded
Summary: Alice doesn't feel well but she has no idea what it means to be sick. Robin explains it to her. First CuriousArcher fic. With some background Robin and Wish!Hook bonding. Takes place pre-curse at some point in time." I'm not here to discuss timelines! "


Alice laid on her couch and coughed. Not that she knew what that was. Her throat hurt. And every few minutes she made this funny sound that scraped against her throat and made it hurt even worse. Well, it would have been a funny sound if it didn't hurt so bloody much. This wasn't the first time this had happened since she'd left her tower. She remembered a week or two after she left this happening. It felt like the air was coming out of her lungs. But she could still breathe. It went away. She hoped that was the case. She figured she could ask Robin the next time she saw her. _Robin!_ Alice thought. She was supposed to come over later that day. She stayed on the couch for what felt like a few more minutes. Maybe it was longer. She didn't know. She felt foggy. Like she couldn't tell what time even was at the moment.

Alice heard a knock on her door. Robin! Alice went to get up from the couch. And she felt so heavy. Like all of her energy had been sucked out of her. She usually had so much of that. She had 6,205days , seventeen _years,_ of pent up energy. But right now? She didn't think she could get off the couch. Alice groaned. And then she made a different sound. It made her jump. That sound. What was it? Did that come out of her? Her nose felt funny. It kind of stung. Was that the word? Alice didn't know. But she didn't want to keep Robin waiting. Although, Alice figured Robin _could_ let herself in if she had to. She never had, though.

Robin was starting to worry. Alice usually ran to the door and engulfed Robin in a hug. This wasn't like her.

"Alice?" Robin called through the door.

"I'm coming," Alice mumbled. It was quieter than normal. Alice slugged towards the door. Her whole body hurt and she felt heavy. She opened the door. "Hi, Robin."

Now Robin was really worried. Alice's usual cheeky smile was missing and replaced with a look of sheer misery. And Alice's cheerful use of her nickname for Robin was replaced with a quiet , almost shy use of her actual name. And Alice was the furthest thing from quiet usually. That's why they'd gotten arrested at the Double Woodpecker.

Robin looked at her girlfriend for a second. Her beautiful girlfriend looked like she wasn't feeling well.

"Are you okay, to_" no now was more of a real name situation Robin decided, "Alice?"

Alice barely shrugged her shoulders. "Not sure."

Robin blinked. She wasn't _sure_? Well, not the weirdest thing Alice had said. She did have a funny way of looking at the world. "What's wrong?"

Alice shrugged again. "Not entirely sure." Robin noticed the grate in Alice's voice. It wasn't one of anger. It was one of pain. Was Alice _sick_?

Robin was gentle. She understood that her girlfriend had lead a very strange, very lonely life. One filled with pain and misery and she spent seven years of it completely alone locked in a tower with not another human being to talk to. The only person she'd had had been separated from her when she was young. By a vile curse that was a fate far worse than death. "Could you try to explain it?" Robin questioned Alice again.

Alice nodded. She wasn't sure but she'd try. "I got up this morning and my throat felt funny. And I made a weird sound. Not like good weird. It kinda hurt." Alice coughed again. "Sorry. That sound. I've been making it all day."

Robin held in a laugh. "What's funny?"

"Alice, you're _sick_!"

"Sorry? Is this like not cool. Your world is very strange."

Robin looked on at Alice in utter bafflement. "Alice, have you never been sick before?"

Alice looked at her. "What does sick _mean_?"

Robin was seriously going to have to talk to Nook later.

"Ummm…the way you're feeling. The funny sound is called coughing. It's just something that happens." Robin debated on getting more into the science side of being sick but then remembered she was in a realm that didn't have much in the way of scientific advancement. "Has this never happened before?"

Alice nodded. "A few times, a long time ago. When I left the tower, I felt like this a few weeks after. It went away."

Robin thought about it. Alice's immune system had to be horrible for a while. She had never been exposed to regular childhood germs.

"Oh! It's just your immune system. It keeps you healthy most of the time. But sometimes it doesn't know how to react. Everyone gets sick every once in a while. This will go away." Robin didn't want to outright blame the sickness on Alice's time in the tower she knew Alice hated that place and what it had done to her and her papa. "I know how to make you feel better." Robin suggested.

It was weird seeing Alice so calm. She was usually the kind of person that ran through the woods hopping from realm to realm and couldn't sit still for long.

Robin stayed as long as she could. She made Alice something simple to eat and made tea.

They sat next to each other on Alice's couch just enjoying each other's company. Alice coghing and sneezing every few minutes. Robin explaining to Alice the words for both of those things after she laughed at the third time Alice went "what the bloody hell is this?" once she realized she actually wanted an answer to her not so rhetorical question. Alice sneezed again and Robin finally found her namesake's manners "Oh, bless you."

Alice cocked her eyebrow and repeated the saying back to Robin, "Bless you?"

"It's just something you say when someone sneezes. Some people in my realm long ago thought it stopped demons from getting inside when you sneezed. But it's just something you say it's all a myth."

Alice laughed. "Ow. Your realm sounds bloody strange and I've been a lot of odd places."

Robin nodded. "Sounds like it. I don't know. I never liked it in Storybook much. Didn't leave till I came here, remember?"

Alice nodded. "Aye."

That one word reminded Robin why she had come to the cabin to begin with. Well, what her excuse had been. She really just wanted to see Alice. "That reminds me, this is for you." Robin handed Alice a letter from her papa.

"Thanks." Alice smiled and set the letter down on the counter. "It's almost dark."

Robin sighed. "Yeah. Guess that means I have to leave." Alice cocked a half a smile.

"Thanks."

Robin didn't ask for what. "For sitting with me. Made me feel better. See you around, Nobin."

"See you around, Tower Girl" Robin leaned in for the kiss. She'd been around Alice all day if she was gonna get sick she'd get sick anyway. And she really wanted to kiss her girlfriend goodbye. They kissed. And Robin felt the same swell she always felt as they broke apart. She never wanted to be apart from this girl. She was the love of her life she was sure of it now. "I love you." She said. Alice smiled. "I love you too, Nobin. Thanks again."

Robin tucked the blanket around Alice and walked out the door. She pressed her back against the door and let out a smile to rival the chesire cat's. She wondered if he was real. She'd have to ask Alice at some point. Although, bringing up Wonderland was a bad idea from what everyone else had told her. Gods, she loved that woman. She walked back towards the camp with that ridiculous grin. She didn't care. Alice loved her. And she couldn't be happier.

She walked into camp and Nook saw her. "Hey, Robin." Snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"What's with the grin? Take it you had a good visit?" Robin nodded.

"Yeah," she exhaled.

"How is Alice?"

"She's perfect. Gods I love her…" she paused she'd had something to ask him. "Oh. She wasn't feeling too well. Had a bit of a cough. Had to explain that to her."

"Bloody hell, it just never came up. We were so isolated. She was never really exposed to germs. I guess I didn't prepare her for _everything_ "

"It's not your fault," Robin reminded him. It felt like sometimes he needed reminding that everything that happened to him and Alice was Gothel's fault _not_ his. "You did the best you could. And she turned out perfect."

"Why thank-you, lass. Now what was that about you loving my daughter?"

Robin jumped a little. She had not thought that comment through. This was the same man that had given up his entire life, his home, _everything_ for a child he was tricked into having.

"I love her. She sees the world in her own way. She's kinder than anyone I have ever met. She's got this little adventurous streak. And she has this look she makes whenever she's confused by anything. And I'm sure I confuse her a lot. I don't know. But Nook, I _love_ her like I've never loved anyone in my life. And she's she's the one. I love her."

Nook smiled. "Alright then, lass. Don't you bloody dare hurt her."

Robin laughed. This was not the first time Nook had told her this. And Robin wouldn't dream of hurting Alice ever. "I _couldn't_."

A/N: Can we decide as a whole that Robin taking letters from Nook to Alice and vice versa is cannon? I swear I've seen it in so many fics that I was fairly certain it _was_ but I don't think it is. If someone can find me a scene where that either happens or is referenced. Maybe I'm wrong. But definitely borrowed that bit from wherever the original source is but I've seen it so many places that I just I think it's perfect and explains at least part of that 8 year gap. Also I apologized if I messed up the charecters. They are my favorites and was kinda scared to write them.


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